Park fun, Museum fun, Computers

Usually we head to a park for P.E., and we do a good chunk of structured activity, and then I let them run around on the playground for a while. No big whoop, but one day I was able to take this picture

and that was a big whoop. It was big because Josh got about 7/8ths of the way up there and then started to panic about the transfer from ladder to crow's nest. And, get this, I encouraged him and he actually listened to me and did it! That's huge. It's kind of rare for my kids to trust me like that. Or, at least, it feels like it. Anyway, he got up there and gave me the sweetest thank-you for the encouragement. Totally made my day, but mostly I was proud of him for trusting not only me but himself to do something challenging.

The first Saturday of September, we made an impromptu decision to go to the L.A. Natural History Museum. And then we figured, as long as we were there, why not become members and use it to our homeschooling advantage? The only small hiccup in our day was that it just happened to be opening day of USC football (and the museum is pretty much smack on campus), so that made parking exciting, but we got there eventually.

And so did the Goodyear Blimp.

I haven't been there in AGES. They've really gussied the place up, most notably the area around the front entrance. It's really gorgeous.

The kids hammed it up while we waited for Daddy to finish signing up.

We spent a good chunk of time there. Favorite exhibits were the butterflies, the dinos, and the bugs.

Surprisingly, though, we ended up spending the most time (I think - at least it seemed that way) in the Minerals and Gems area. Too dark for any good photos, but the kids had a blast checking out all the colors and designs and hunting down their birthstones.

Matt has begun his Computer Science unit with the boys. OH MAN are they excited! He'll keep it pretty basic with Josh and Joseph, but with Ben he's doing more with programming. Although, he's gotten them all started on Kodu, and boy do they love that!

The first thing he did with them, though, was grab an old computer out of the garage (of course we have some of those, Matt's a computer guy!) and crack it open to explain the innards to the boys.

Kelly was also very excited to learn.

Joseph spent most of the lesson hugging a hard drive. Yeah, I don't know, either.

Josh just mostly wanted his picture taken with Computer Part. Ben was fascinated by the heat marks on the case.

This made total sense at the time.

Go figure, Ben is eating up the programming lessons. Can't wait for the time I get to call him over every other day to come program my house or fix my holographs or whatever.